Criminology: AC4.2 - JC Flashcards
Social changes affect policy development
SOCIAL VALUES, NORMS AND MORES
One example is the taboo against incest which is found in all societies. Another is the prohibition against taking human life other than in very exceptional circumstances e.g., war.
Going against a society’s mores is likely to be severely punished.
PUBLIC PERCEPTION OF DRINK DRIVING
Over time, views have changed about drink driving and this has led to changes in laws and policies. The public have come to see it as much more serious and the laws governing it have become tighter.
In 1925, the first law was passed making driving while drunk an offence. However, there was no clear definition of ‘drunk’, and no legal limit on how much alcohol drivers could have in their blood, so it was left to the police and courts to decide whether someone was fit to drive.
BREATHALYSERS
In 1968, the first breathalysers were introduced for roadside use.
Together with a major advertising campaign by the government, this helped to reduce road deaths by over 1,100 and serious injuries by over 11,000.
Importantly, the proportion of accidents where alcohol was involved also fell, from 25% to 15%.
TOUGHER LAWS
In 1983, the High-Risk Offender scheme was introduced for convicted drivers with an alcohol problem. The group includes drivers who have been disqualified more than once for drink driving.
In 1991, a new offence causing death by driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs was introduced, with a compulsory prison sentence of up to 5 years. (In 2014, this was increased to 14 years)
The penalty of drink driving offence is now up to 6 months’ imprisonment, an unlimited fine and a drink driving ban for at least one year.
CAMPAIGNS
The first TV advertising campaign against drink driving mounted by the government was aired over 50 years ago and the fall in deaths is partly due to these campaigns.
The campaigns have been an important factor in changing public perceptions of drink driving as a crime.
E.g., In 1979, half of all male drivers admitted to drink driving at least once a week.
However, by 2014, a survey by the THINK! Campaign showed that 91% of people agreed that drink driving was unacceptable and 92% said they would be ashamed if they were caught.
Media Campaigns and Changing Views
Road safety campaigns such as ‘Brake’ argue that the government needs to go further.
One in eight road deaths still involve a driver over the alcohol limit.
England and Wales have the highest legal alcohol limit in Europe.
DEMOGRAPHIC CHANGES: IMMIGRATION AND RACISM
In 1945, there were fewer than 20,000 non-white residents in the UK. The main immigrant groups were both white: Irish (who had come for economic reasons) and Jews, who had fled from persecution in Europe.
During the 1950s and 1960s, non-white immigrants came from former British colonies in the Caribbean, the Indian subcontinent and Africa.
As a result, the UK’s demographic structure has changed to a multi-ethnic one.
THE WINDRUSH GENERATION
The early arrivals, known as the ‘Windrush Generation’, faced hostility, with many white people holding racist stereotypes of black people.
Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, immigrants were often faced with discrimination in housing, employment and services.
In 1956, a survey in Birmingham found that only 1.5% of whites would be willing to let a room to a black tenant.
A BBC documentary found churches turning away black families to avoid upsetting white worshippers.
THE RACE RELATIONS ACT 1965
The Race Relations Act 1965 was the first piece of legislation in the UK to address the prohibition of racial discrimination and followed previously unsuccessful bills.
The Act banned racial discrimination in public places and made the promotion of hatred on the grounds of ‘colour, race, or ethnic or national origins’ an offence.
The Bill received Royal Assent on 8 November 1965, and came into force a month later on 8 December 1965. It was introduced by the Government in response to the increasing number of people who had moved to the UK from other Commonwealth countries; at the time of the Act being passed there were nearly one million immigrants living in the UK.
It was criticised for failing to address vital areas where discrimination was most prevalent, namely employment and wider aspects of acquiring accommodation.
THE RACE RELATIONS ACT 1965
A further act in 1968 outlawed discrimination in the key areas of employment, housing and public services.
On 25th October 1968, the Race Relations Bill was given Royal Assent and so came into law as the Race Relations Act 1968.
This Act expanded the provisions of the 1965 Race Relations Act, which had banned racial discrimination in public places and made promoting racial hatred a crime. The 1968 Act focused on eradicating discrimination in housing and employment. It aimed to ensure that the second-generation immigrants “who have been born here” and were “going through our schools” would get “the jobs for which they are qualified and the houses they can afford”.
Although there was considerable debate during the second reading of the Bill, consensus was eventually reached with the Bill passing its third reading 182 ayes to 44 noes.
THE RACE RELATIONS ACT 1976
Both Acts were replaced by the 1976 Race Relations Act, which covered the following:
Direct discrimination- When someone treats you less favourably, for example because of your race.
2) Indirect discrimination- When there is a policy or a rule that applies to everyone, but it has a worse effect on some groups than others.
E.g., A council may rule that to get on the housing list, you must have lived in the area for 5 years. This applies to everyone but a recently arrived homeless refugee family would be disadvantaged by the rule.
THE EQUALITY ACT 2010
The Equality Act 2010 legally protects people from discrimination in the workplace and in wider society.
It replaced previous anti-discrimination laws with a single Act, making the law easier to understand and strengthening protection in some situations. It sets out the different ways in which it’s unlawful to treat someone.
The Act brought together several pieces of legislation to cover discrimination, including:
Sex Discrimination Act 1975
Race Relations Act 1976
Disability Discrimination Act 1995
EQUALITY ACT
The Equality Act became law in 2010 to protect everyone in Britain from discrimination, harassment and victimisation due to the protected characteristics we all have. Under the Equality Act, it is against the law to discriminate against anyone because of the 9 protected characteristics, as follows:
- Age
- Disability
- Sex
- Gender reassignment
- Race
- Religion or Belief
- Sexual orientation
- Marriage and civil partnership
- Pregnancy and maternity
The Equality Act protects you from discrimination:
- At work
- In education
- As a consumer
- When using public services
- When buying or renting property
- As a member or guest of a private club or association
CULTURAL CHANGES
Since the 1960s, there has been a cultural change- a decline in prejudice towards ethnic minorities.
The 1987 British Attitudes Survey found that 39% of people said they were racially prejudiced, whereas by 2017 this had fallen to 26%.
Similarly, according to a 2018 survey by British Future, 66% of the over-65s in ethnic minorities said the level of racial prejudice today is lower than it was in 1968.
As a result of changing attitudes, there has been a change in public perception of discrimination and race hate as crimes. People are now more likely to accept that these should be criminal offences.
REASONS FOR CHANGE
This is partly due to changes in the law. According to some psychologists, if we are made to change our behaviour, we tend to change our attitudes to fit.
However, other factors may also be responsible for the decline in prejudice. For example, the British Future survey found that people thought children of different backgrounds mixing at school, and workplace contact with people from other ethnicities, were both more important than race relations laws in improving race relations in Britain.
CONTINUING DISCRIMINATION
There has clearly been changes in attitudes and behaviour since the demographic changes brought by immigration.
However, this does not mean discrimination has disappeared.
As well as racism towards non-whites, there is Islamophobia, racism towards white Eastern Europeans and Gypsies/Roma, and antisemitism towards Jews.
CULTURAL CHANGES AND LGBT RIGHTS
Before the 1960s
For centuries, same-sex sexual activity was condemned as immoral or sinful and severely punished by the law.
In the 20th century, the law continued to be enforced against gay men. By 1954 there were over 1000 men in prison as a result.
SEXUAL OFFENCES ACT 1967
After several attempts to introduce homosexual reform, Lord Arran introduced the Bill in the House of Lords in May 1966 after the general election. As soon as the Bill passed, Leo Abse MP introduced it into the House of Commons under a ten-minute rule procedure, with the support of the Home Secretary, Roy Jenkins. A standing committee was set up to consider amendments and after an intense night of debates, at the third reading, the Bill was passed 101 votes to 16. After passing all stages in both houses, the bill received Royal Assent on the 21st July 1967.
The Act permitted homosexual acts between two consenting adults over the age of twenty-one. Whilst the Act was a considerable milestone in achieving homosexual law reform, equality for the LGBT community was far from being achieved. Restrictions were placed on what was considered private and the Act only applied to England and Wales. It would take a number of years for Parliament to fully legalise homosexuality.
However, the 1967 Act marked the decriminalisation of sexual activity in private between men aged 21 and over, and therefore decriminalised homosexuality itself in England and Wales. Consenting sex between men over the age of 21 was not decriminalised in Scotland until 1981 and in Northern Ireland until 1982.
CHANGING ATTITUDES
Today about two-thirds of the population see nothing wrong in same-sex relationships, compared with a fifth or less in the 1980s.
People have been persuaded by the decades-long argument that human sexuality, including homosexuality, is as innate facet of every individual and should be recognised as such.
More people now take the view that consenting adults should have the right to do as they wish in private and that this is no business of the police or courts.
CHANGING ATTITUDES
Individualism
This is the belief that individuals should have the right to choose how they live their lives, so long as they do no harm to others.
Individualism has become a central value in today’s culture and can be seen in many areas of life and the law, such as divorce and abortion as well as sexual preferences.
Equal Rights
There has been a huge growth in the idea of equal rights. This can be seen in the case of the growth of women’s rights and equal treatment regardless of race, colour or religion. The move towards equal rights for LGBTQ+ people is part of this trend.
CHANGING ATTITUDES
Secularisation
This refers to the declining influence of religion on people’s lives, attitudes and values.
Religions have generally opposed homosexuality, often violently. However, religion today wields much less influence than in the past- less than half of Britons now believe in God.
As a result, religious condemnation of homosexuality carries much less weight and in fact, some churches have softened their attitudes, even permitting gay priests.
FURTHER LEGAL CHANGES
Equal age of consent- in 1994, the age of consent was lowered from 21 to 18 and in 2000 it was equalised with heterosexual sex at 16.
Civil partnerships- these were introduced in 2005, giving legal recognition and protection to same-sex relationships. In 2018 the government proposed to make civil partnerships available to cohabiting heterosexual couples.
Same-sex marriage- This was made legal in England and Wales in 2013 with the 2013 Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act.
TRANSGENDER RIGHTS
For many years, transsexualism was widely regarded as a medical condition, but attitudes and values have changed more recently, with more (though not universal) acceptance that individuals should have the right to decide their gender (gender being different to sex, which is a protected characteristic under the Equality Act 2010. Gender reassignment is also a protected characteristic).
The Gender Recognition Act 2004 enables people to change their legal gender, acquire a new birth certificate and recognise their ‘acquired gender’ in law for some purposes i.e. to marry / form a civil partnership / have your affirmed gender on your death certificate when you die. This is called a Gender Recognition Certificate.
A GRC does not change your legal status as the father or mother of a child.
The Act requires a person to be;
18 or over;
have a diagnosis of gender dysphoria in the UK;
have been living as their preferred gender for at least two years; and
intend to live as the acquired gender for the rest of their life.
A person does not have to have had any surgery or treatments to apply for a certificate, and they do not have to have any plans to do so. The application costs £5.
More recently, changes have been proposed to enable individuals to self-declare their gender without going before a panel to obtain a gender recognition certificate. This is currently a contested issue but you do not have to refer to that in your notes.
